Ref: EvilTables
Players: Jay_zer0 (Soteranni), roguewithwhimsy (Jorcal), idraluna-archives (Porphyriana, daughter of Heloise, granddaughter of Violette, great-granddaughter of Faustine), oldhawkeyes (Roald)
Region: N. Strata
Description:
During the week of downtime since their previous sally, Jorcal engaged in solitary contemplation, Porphyriana continued studying psychoanalytic theory, Soterrani started plagiarizing his mentor’s magnum opus, & Roald tried unsheathing the magic sword he had retrieved from the Pigeons’ contraband pit. He would subsequently report that doing so catapulted him into an altered state of consciousness in which he perceived a black void filled with eyes & cryptic voices.
The adventurers then gathered to debate whether and how to honor their fledgling alliance with the pigeon mail service in the Caves of Intensity. Though all broadly agreed to open hostilities with the pigeon-folk, Soteranni expressed concern that the terms of the alliance were unclear — would the mailbirds provide adequate tactical support? Would they allow the party to loot the halflings’ lair? Thus it was decided that they would first seek out another audience with the Postmeister.
The journey to the Caves of Intensity was uneventful. In the ravine, the party examined two dead humans wearing only what appeared to be seaweed leashes.
They found the Postmeister in his office preparing battle plans, and questioned him regarding the extent, disposition, & location of the CoI’s factions (see rumors below). Soterrani & Jorcal hatched a plan to disrupt the halflings’ food supply by either allying or defeating the beetles, coupled with an ambush on the next ritual sacrifice to the shambler in hopes of angering it & harming or disrupting the halfling’s operations. The rest of the party agreed to adopt this plan.
The next step was to gather mercenaries. Noting that the elves are historically enemies of the plantfolk, the party opted to seek out the elves in the forests north of the Scholars’ tower.
On the way, they met an elderly hermit in the woods selling herbal remedies. Roald asked about his sword, and she recommended that they show it to Professor Challenger in the tower.
At the elven settlement, they were granted entrance after Porphyriana rattled off three generations of forbearers. From an elf named Emily, they learned that the matriarch of this settlement was named Clarisse Clement, and that it was afflicted with a curse called the “Line of Death”. Emily & several other elves were in the process of outfitting an expedition to something called the Ur-tree in order to fulfill Clarisse’s prophesy (that a new child would be born from the earth under the ur-tree, to rule with a crown of birds and a sceptre of red stone). Though no elves were willing to deviate from their quest to fight the shambler, a gift of six serrated anti-plantfolk blades was granted.
Then, Roald asked about his sword & allowed Emily to unsheathe it. She was rapidly possessed by an alien force & intoned cryptic warnings about a gate (“He will break through”). This event negated most of the good will accrued by Porphyriana’s pedigree; the party was asked to depart in haste.
On the way back to the scholars’ tower, two owlbears stumbled upon their camp. In the ensuing fight, one was killed, in part thanks to Roald’s baleful blade.
At the tower, Professor Challenger was consulted regarding the sword. He explained that the weapon was in fact a key to another realm, sometimes known as the “Hollow Earth”, with a gate rumored to be located some hundreds of miles to the north. He was emphatic that the sword must be returned to the gate as quickly as possible, lest Roald be gradually consumed by its power.
Rumors:
- The Postmeister provided more details re: the layout of the Caves of Intensity: the plant folk have two factions, bulbs & tubers, tenuously united by fealty to the shambler. Fungal aliens reside far to the north. Crabs to the north. Beetles live far to the east.
- Both halflings & beetles pay tribute to the shambler. The beetles cultivate the plantfolk & provide food for the halflings.
- There are 20-30 halflings, in command of an indeterminate number of skeletons & zombies.
- The Ur-tree grows somewhere to the south.
- Clarisse’s prophesy: a new child would be born from the earth under the ur-tree, to rule with a crown of birds and a scepter of red stone
- Far to the north there is a gate to the Hollow Earth, behind which some kind of sinister entity lurks.
Gold & XP: 550 gp
Special or Magic Items: 6 serrated elven blades
Written by: Idraluna Archives
Ref Commentary
Having a lot of fun with this game. One thing I’ve been realizing is that concrete details are very useful in keys, since they are harder to improv–there were a few times where something I had written for a hex was a bit abstract.
Since I’ve been running this game in-person as well, one question raised by oldhawkeyes is whether the events in one game should affect the other. Definitely something to think about.
Also, I am getting a bit more used to the 2-hour slots. I’ve been doing 3 hours pretty consistently for the last few years, so shortening that has helped a bit focusing on keeping better pacing.
One last note is that, via a somewhat contrived LotR plot, I’ve been aiming to transition the game to a longer scale overland travel/journey that something of a mix of point and hexcrawl that spans around 600+ miles on the Antarctica jam map. I have no idea whether this will ultimately be successful but curious to see where it goes.